Darn, I had already written a lengthy reply and had it wiped out, because I had to log in again. Anyways, to quote Die Hard: "You surprise me again, McClane" :P.

While the trailer technically contains spoilers, I guess the identities of those two Testament members have been fairly obvious, since Monolith Soft has dropped so many hints during Xenosaga Episode I and II, that anybody who has played the games knows who they are by now.

The trailer itself looks promising, even though I'm still concerned about the game's storyline and the conclusion to the series. Sure, it doesn't make any sense to speculate on stuff like that at this point in time, seeing that the game's release is still almost four months away. Nonetheless, it will be interesting to see, whether they finally manage to properly explain the motivations of Wilhelm, Margulis, Sellers and Yuriev and give the series a good ending. And with good, I don't mean some open-ended stuff a la EVA or Matrix Revolutions.

While the trailer technically contains spoilers, I guess the identities of those two Testament members have been fairly obvious, since Monolith Soft has dropped so many hints during Xenosaga Episode I and II, that anybody who has played the games knows who they are by now.

True enough - I can't say their idenities came as any kind surprise. Still, it's always best to be on the safe side in case there's someone who doesn't want to learn that kind of thing from a trailer.

Why was it cut in half anyway? I hear its just because of comments about Xenosaga II.

The series was a financial failure. Episode I really only sold well because it was riding the momentum from Xenogears. If the series had been as popular as Namco originaly thought, Episode II would have sold like hot-cakes regardless of quality. This is just my own opinion, but I'm guessing when those people who wanted another Xenogears finished playing Xenosaga, they realized that it wasn't the same. So they didn't bother buying the second game. And those people who did love Xenosaga, wanted another one just like it... So they hated Episode II. Real shame too, I loved Episode II, other then the VA I thought it was a far superior game.

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I find it disheartning that Takahashi decided to cut the game short buy having Ep. III

You know, I initially thought the same thing. However, when I looked more closely at everything... What really has changed? The current story-arc was always ment to end at Episode III (it was known for awhile that the only playable characters throught the hole series would be chaos and KOS-MOS). I'm not going to say that the script hasn't changed at all... there were a lot of changes to Episode I/II nothing critical though (some things didn't even make sense).

In any case, I am looking forward to this game. Hopefully they won't dumb-down and revert the system back to Episode Is though...

It does seem that way IMO, in some ways, because I hear some people nit pick at everything. I normally just play games and not worry about any of the bad, unless there is nothing good about the game.

Anyway, I truly loved Episode I and liked Episode II almost as much. I was greatly looking forward to the saga spanning six versions, but will only being seeing three. Well, I'll be very interested to see how the story concludes.

This is just my own opinion, but I'm guessing when those people who wanted another Xenogears finished playing Xenosaga, they realized that it wasn't the same. So they didn't bother buying the second game. And those people who did love Xenosaga, wanted another one just like it... So they hated Episode II.

Yep...not only do gamers hate everything, they have very, very conservative tastes, and only want what they've seen or had before. It seems like innovation in itself is scorned.

As I have already mentioned ealier in this thread, Xenosaga Episode I performed well enough in Japan, despite not meeting Namco's projections. The problem is that a lot of people apparently just did not like the game's approach and started complaining about the lack of music, interactivity and whatnot. Monolith Soft then promised to address those issues, handed creative control to younger folks and at some point sidelined Takahashi (who is known for his disregard for budgets and deadlines) and his wife. We all know the result: Xenosaga Episode II was singled out as one of the worst performing games of Namco's fiscal year 2004/2005, after selling almost 100,000 copies less than Episode I in Japan. That Namco basically lost interest in the series thereafter is not really surprising. Personally I'm not sure, whether it matters, though, seeing that after the flops that were Baten Kaitos and Namco x Capcom, Monolith Soft is still far removed from being the RPG powerhouse that management imagined.

I'll second that. It takes a lot more for me to get interested in RPGs lately, or maybe its just myself growing out of it.Whatever the reason, there are more thing in life to keep me occupied, I really don't care for gaming "politics".

We all know the result: Xenosaga Episode II was singled out as one of the worst performing games of Namco's fiscal year 2004/2005, after selling almost 100,000 copies less than Episode I in Japan.

Did it perform badly because it wasn't as good, or because Takahashi was sidelined?

I remember a thread here about Episode II, and many people, who by their own admission hadn't even played Ep. II, were criticizing the game only because Takahashi wasn't involved. I don't know if removing Takahashi hurt the quality of the game or not, but I suppose it was a bad business decision, because gamers apparently wanted him to be associated with the game.

Whatever the reason, there are more thing in life to keep me occupied, I really don't care for gaming "politics".

Me neither. But in this instance I can't help but get a little angry, because I feel like the gamer community, the supposed "xeno-" fans, killed the game, imo. The company actually tried to respond to its audience, addressing complaints about episode I, but no one seemed to appreciate that and they slammed Ep. 2 as well. The game didn't sell, and I attribute that to negative hype, a lot of it generated by people who didn't play the game at all, just because of the whole Takahashi thing.

I just want to enjoy good games, and I don't like this. Sorry if I'm rambling incoherently.

I don't feel like typing a long reply, but I'd like to note that you'd have to genuinely fix something to actually please people. To me, the battle system was fine but a little slow before, but now it's horrible and only fast for the first hour or so of the game, then slows down too damn much for normal battles.

For the record, I enjoyed XS1 a good deal but hated 2 for the most part. And beat both.

Well, that's a genuine complaint, I suppose; I'm more upset at people who denigrated the game because of the Takahashi affair, or because it wasn't Xenogears.

I personally liked Episode 2's battle system more. It felt more tactical, required more planning, and one's level made less of a difference than one's battle tactics. So I never had to take time out to just level grind. And, if memory serves me correctly, the encounter rate was fairly low, so that even if the battles were longer, the total time spent in battle was comparable (or even less that Ep. 1, since leveling up wasn't as necessary).

But this particular dispute is pretty academic at this point. And I don't really need to root for Xenosaga since III is the final installment.

Have you guys seen the video capture of a guy playing the demo, that is floating around on the net? Judging from it, Monolith has made huge strides with the battle system in Xenosaga Episode 3. The battles load very quickly, and the actual fights themselves seem to be fast and snappy as well, and not 2 minute plus affairs like in XS EP2.

Not too impressed with the music in the demo, however, even if it (presumably?) is Yuki Kajiura writing the field music as well as "movie scene" music this time around. The battle and boss themes are kind of nice, I guess, but they are too short and get looped a lot. The dungeon theme of the particular dungeon in the demo is atrocious, though - some kind of fusion jazz thing. Imagine the New York theme from Shadow Hearts: From The New World, only worse. Much worse.

Actually, I seriously doubt that's Kajiura writing the field music. Listening to it again it's just too far away from her usual style (and quality) to be feasible.

Other nice changes include a new camera angle that's a lot nicer than the birdseye view in Ep 1/2, voice overs for text dialogue that isn't part of a cutscene and

Code:

Miyuki

as a playable character. Also, Shion look pretty damn good in that outfit she's wearing in the demo.

So yeah, I'm officially excited about Xenosaga Episode 3. Even if it's hard to judge a game just based on watching someone else play it, it does seem like a lot of stuff has been improved since Episode 2. I just hope they mange to tie together all existing story threads in a satisfactionary manner.

The footage of the demo can either be downloaded here as a BitTorrent file, or from my personal server. Not sure about the legality of filming an entire demo like that, so admins can feel free to delete the links if they break any board rules.

well, I got my hands on the demo.. I like this battle system.. it feels like the first game but with a few hints of the second game.

I can't bring myself to play Episode II all the way through because I loathe the battles, but I can safely get excited about III now and look for a story summary of II so I won't be missing anything important.

I'm happy with the changes, the characters looks nice, too.. I may be a minority, but I preferred the exaggerated style of the first game to the more realistic look of the second, and I think that III is a good mixture of the styles.

I ignored most of the dialogue, since even though I can understand a bit of it, I honestly don't want anything more spoiled.

I really loved the new feel of the music. I know Mitsuda created the "Xeno" sound, but I didn't feel it during Xenosaga Episode I (atleast, not a lot of it).

As for the battle system... Though I expected it, Episode IIs attempt at innovation is gone. Fortunately, Episode Is (and gears) horribly repetitive system isn't completely back. It's been replaced with something more stylish and not so stupidly exaggerated. It's more fast paced, which is something both games couldn't get right (Though, Episode II took long for a reason, Episode Is battles just took long because the the ridiculous Deathblow system).

I'm looking forwards to the game. Though I fricken hate much Namco has given away in the last few trailers...